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Wednesday, February 28, 2001

The lines were around the block and over 3000 people darkened the doorway at Madison Square Garden's Expo Center on February 28th looking for work. It was daunting but the largely brick and mortar exhibitors were raking in the people they lost during the dot-com boom a year ago. Big guys like Accenture, AIG, Deloitte and Touche were present along with a variety of other companies like Random Walk Computing, Metropolitan Jewish Health System and Toureau. Hotjobs.com rose to the top of the heap, though, as "the source" for job-related resources.

My first stop, February 6, was Prairiefire, a business-plan
competition sponsored by McKinsey & Company and First Tuesday.Prairiefire, an initiative started 6 months
ago, is designed to help entrepreneur’s kick-start or grow their new economy
businesses in the Midwest.The
competition received a total of 600 business plans that was narrowed down to 50
semi-finalists and tonight they announced the winners.

I sat in a room of about 300 to hear that the winning
business plan belonged to Telcom 21, a broadband infrastructure equipment
provider, based in Naperville, Illinois.Telcom 21 took home $100,000 in cash, $25,000 in consulting services
from eBlast Ventures, and $50,000 in computer equipment from Compaq.The two runners-up were EnTech Engineering, based
in St. Louis, MO which provides data on the destructibility of bridges and Opto
Electronics, based in Mahomet, IL that has found a technique for assembling
components in fiber-optic networks.Both
will receive $20,000 in cash and $25,000 in consulting services and computer
hardware.

This event did much to show that the spirit on
entrepreneurism in the Midwest is alive and well.I think David Jacobson, the leader of First
Tuesday Chicago, summed up the night best when he said, "the real winners
here are not the 3 individuals who took home checks today, but the whole
technology community."

On February 21, I packed up my palm pilot and headed over to
Mobile Wednesday.Mobile Wednesday, is
an event for executives, entrepreneurs, investors and consultants to meet and
discuss emerging technologies and the future of the wireless internet.The theme revolved around M-School with
Douglas Lemont, Professor at DePaul University, instructing the crowd of 200
about Chicago's place in the mobile economy."Chicago will be a national leader in the U.S. when it comes to
wireless products and we will make money," said Lemont.Representatives from Centerpost Corporation,
SunMicrosystems, Accenture, Expanets,
Fleishman Hillard, and Motorola were all present waiting to hear about the next
Killer Application.

I closed the month, February 28, at Kustom's.Kustom's was home to Chicago's first PinkSlip
party and was organized by turn-about* inc, a not-for-profit company formed to
spur the success of technology companies, workers, and entrepreneurs.The organizers, all ladies dressed in pink,
encouraged people to meet in small groups so job seekers could speak directly
to those filling positions.The exchange
was short-and-sweet, just enough to get business cards, resumes and job
details.

The youthful crowd peaked at about 500 and the night turned
into a beer guzzling and pizza munching party.Many attendees were still employed and the networking opportunities were
endless.

The next PinkSlip party will be March 21st.

Kelly Markhamis
the founder of LaunchChicago.com, a web portal for Chicago’s internet
community.Launch! Chicago hopes to encourage community
involvement, improve access to public resources and accelerate growth of
startup initiatives.

Tuesday, February 27, 2001

Back down in Battery City Park, KickStart officially opened their Wall Street location. Covered originally in the Downtown Alliance's Bits, Byte and Bar, I saw many of the same people, but got to check out more of the space. Near the copy machine/pantry area (this evening's makeshift bar) Kickstart's Jessica Handy looked smashing in her silk rose blouse and silvery eye makeup. It went quite well with her martini, and she introduced me to Connectivity Services' VP/General Manager Kareem El-Heneidi, who in turn introduced me to Kickstart's Matthew Karp, who gave me another tour. CAP Gemini Ernst & Young's Julio Cassels and Michael Lee introduced me to Michael DeMartinis. Shop.com's Alexander Jacobson and I caught up. He told me that are good - he's still in business, which in these times is a good sign! This time around, I got to spy through a window into the Ssrver room, where clients can put their own equipment. In addition to this expanded rack space, KickStart's Wall Street space differs from its Midtown space in the larger spaces for clients and secretarial services. The frosted walls and doors created a cool atmosphere, and all the youngsters and savvy networkers jammed to the final strains of upbeat reggae music before the lights came up and the music went down.

Near the beautifully redone City Hall lies a beautiful restaurant called City Hall. And inside and downstairs this lovely establishment were the good people at WebMortar, hosting their launch party for clients, friends and associates on Tuesday, February 27. WebMortar's Barbara Frerichs greeted me at the door and introduced me to Jared Begun and Mike Newman, who was sporting some fabulously colorful Mardi Gras beads. Necks of others were also clad in necklaces for the festivities, and a band started playing some Dixieland tunes to keep spirits high. Jeremy Kagan was chatting with WebMortar's partner Andy Gonzalez and 20 eggs' Darren Jer, while over by the bar, sampling some very fine wines, was Pfizer's Todd Greeno and Entertaining Ideas Catering's Diane Gordon. WebMortar partner John Kendall and I compared venue options for Austin, TX, where he lived for about three months, and tried to convince Senior Partner Mike Alford of this city's attributes. Fellow Skidmore alum and WebMortar Associate Justin Model and I chatted about our upcoming reunion before he introduced me to Nancy Byrne, who planned the event. Belinda Horton of CIBC Worldmarkets and her husband, City Salvage's President David Topkins, told me about his unique business. He has found a niche picking up people's unwanted household and personal items, and getting them into the hands of charities who can use them. Redwood Partners' Kailah Rovin and LAK PR's Lisa Novitt was chatting up a storm alongside the smoothly polished bar, where the barkeep kept drinks fresh. Sadly all good things come to an end. Although the WebMortar party was winding down this Mardi Gras night, the company is just winding up for lots of business. So, stay tuned!

Monday, February 26, 2001

Comparisons to Jack Kerouac, Charles Kuralt and MTV's Road Rules were tossed around, but Aliza Sherman's road trip across the country and back in her RV was slightly different from them all. While her next book coming out will be entirely devoted to her RVGirl.com exploits, her 2nd book, Cybergrrl @ Work, was the true focus of Tuesday night's sake and wine-tasting soiree at the Upper East Side's Hi-Life. Flooz.com's CEO Robert Levitan and Aliza shared stories of their all-expense-paid speaking engagement in Florida. Meanwhile, Mindarray's Tery Spataro and Starvest Partners' Rachel Masters met and met up with other Webgrrls who came out in support of Aliza. I arrived in typical fashion after all the yummy treats were gone, but Aliza was quick to point out that the vegetarian options and regular sushi were divine. Cybergrrl's man-of-the-house Kevin Kennedy came over to greet me, and though I stayed for only a bit, I could sense plenty of sustained enthusiasm for the original Cybergrrl and her works as she pursues future ventures.

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Thursday, February 22, 2001

As NYC got blanketed in the snow Thursday night, February 22nd, more than 200 hearty souls braved the elements to attend a grand panel and presentation by the MIT Club of New York, MIT Entrepreneurship Center, MIT Enterprise Forum of New York, MIT Sloan Club of New York and the NYU Berkley Center for Entrepreneurial Studies! The evening's topic was "What Venture Capitalists are Looking for in the Current Market." It was answered in a roundabout way by a few of the presenters. NYU Stern School of Business Dean George Daly introduced MIT Sloan School of Management Dean Richard Schmalensee, who then introduced MIT Entrepreneurship Center MD Kenneth Morse. Mr. Morse spoke on "Critical Success Factors in High-Tech Entrepreneurship," and he ruffled the feathers of a few of the VCs in the audience (and upcoming panel).

Starting off his talk, he mentioned that he loves bad weather because it keeps the riff-raff away, similar to being in a place like Route 128 as opposed to Silicon Valley. Mr. Morse said that he feels this shakeout will bring out the good talent and he reminded us that "failure is the mother of all success." His points for success were: have an "A" team that knows how to execute; everyone needs to know the technology; have a "value proposition;" and it's B2B (Back to Basics). For entrepreneurs looking for a VC, select one that will add value to your business. Look for one that's active in your space, has the essential impressive Rolodex/network, has cool limited partners, deep pockets and a lot of guts. Then we got the "Gloom and Doom" speech: the next round is a Bear market; the market's are terrible; plenty of plugs will get pulled; and there will be jewels and junk in the marketplace. Back to the success points: Morse's "A" team analogy continued. "A" teams recruit "A" people, "B" teams hire "B" people and "C" teams fill positions with dogs. The 50 percent rule is that everyone you hire should be better than the people currently there. Then we learned the 3K's: your "A" team people should know the market, know people in the market and be well known. The best business is repeat business. Ken finished his talk with "CFIMITYM:" Cash Flow Is More Important Than Your Mother.

A bit off the mark with the audience he was addressing, NYU Stern Professor of Entrepreneurship and Innovation Christopher Tucci spoke on "Development Webs: A New Paradigm in Product Development." While his talk was detailed and thorough -- all based on a paper he wrote with two collaborators -- it was micro-focused on new product-development processes, and new team organization and boundaries. The areas that will experience the biggest changes are: team organization and boundaries, relationship management, and coordination of interdependencies. Overall, the points he made were that development processes will be more fluid, dynamic and alive inside and outside an organization.

And then the clowns came in! Not really, of course, but things got more lively and interesting on "What VCs Want." Flatiron Partners Managing Partner Bob Greene, Starting Point Venture Partners's John Hector, GSVentures' Co-Head John Mahoney, I-Hatch Ventures' David Shrier and Draper Fisher Juvertson Gotham Ventures' Managing Partner and Co-Founder Daniel Schultz were the illustrious panelists, each with golden nuggets of information. Recalling one of Ken Morse's points, Bob admitted that he'd rather back an "A" team with a "C" idea than a "C" team with an "A" idea. Investments they would look at must have a large market opportunity, something that's not done before. It must also have a great leader. Mahoney mentioned that if they look at a B2C, which isn't the most favorable model right now, they better not be paying retail for their customers. A strong proprietary business with technology is what interests David and Daniel, who said flat out that they're not looking at B2Cs right now. He added that he thinks consumer sites should charge more-the Internet is about convenience; it doesn't need to be the cheapest option. The VCs said they are looking for companies that will grow massively, not just incrementally. They must fill a need and exit multiple are really important. When pressed about what they're looking for, each responded sheepishly, but directly. Bob likes data mining and DRM. Hector likes intuitive computing, voice-activated servers and interactive TV. Mahoney doesn't do pure tech investing; so, he's looking at the insurance industry and CRM. David replied with "if you read about it in the news, it's too late for VCs to be investing," meaning, they're looking at things that aren't in the news yet. Danny said he likes wireless (on the enterprise side), telcom, commerce and infrastructure.

Closing points were similar to what we've heard before: be smart about partnerships, be stealth, be careful, watch the money you have and cut your burn. Bob provided a historical reference and cited the confidence that returned after the Gulf War. While this is the worst time he's seen in 13 years of VC work, he expects things to pick up in the 3rd quarter. So, hunker down and get ready for an interesting Spring!

Just around the corner, at (shhh!) Hush, Yada Yada threw a classic bash like it was 1999! Disco lights flashing, Madonna's "Holiday" blasting, and strong, stocky guys and gals mingling with the intent of meeting up and networking! I strolled over to say "hello" to Sun Microsystems' Felix Knoll, who introduced me to Yada Yada Director of Business Development Daniel Alvarez. Daniel dazzled me with a display of Yada Yada's hard and software as he called up an espn.com site. Unlike competitors' browsers, which force sites to develop WAP sites to be viewed on their unites, Yada Yada's PDA/Phone can support web pages in frames, graphics and text. EMC2's Jesse Childs and Tim Merrigan seemed to be having a jolly good time and remarked that "Jack Kemp said there are fine looking chicks." I didn't realize there was an incubator for chickens in the same club, but took them at their word.

While the rest of the town was fast talking about wireless and content delivery solutions, Fast Company was talking about "Community Service for the Over-Committed - How Can We Best Give Back" at Doubleclick's offices on 33rd Street. And on the other end of the spectrum, RsvpNYCity and Skyy Vodka hosted an exclusive event celebrating short form cinema for the SKYY Vodka Short Film Awards at the Lansky Lounge on the Lower East Side. And back uptown again, OmniSky was entertaining gadget-lovers at Light on Park and 54th. The Grimaldi Group hosted a panel discussion and networking cocktail party on the Finland-U.S. Wireless Connection. Sponsored by FinPro and Holtron, the event gave guests speaches from Proximity, Result Venture and Thin Air Apps, while the gurgle of foam trickled down the lava walls at the Lava Lounge. One thing's for certain-wireless is hot and making permanent marks, like Lava! There was a great turnout and lots of talented Fins and Americans exchanging cards and enjoying the atmosphere.

The
Layoff Lounge - 02/22/01The
first event of the Layoff Lounge (www.layofflounge.com) took place in
downtown LA's SoHo Nightclub. This newly-reopened joint used to be known as
Glam Slam, Prince's favorite space to jam.The polished wood walls and clean lines gave the place a refined appeal,
and the art-deco wavy metal "walls" performed a function while
offering a funky modern look to the space.There was a large bar in the back area of the club, so I wandered over
to grab an Evian before I headed over to the Sponsor tables. Before I could pay
the bartender, I was inquired about what sort of resources I was looking for by
two well-dressed gentleman. They knew to ask me because the red button on my nametag
told them I was an employer, as opposed to a job-seeker or a VC -- a nice, easy
flagging system for people to know more about a person with a simple glance at
a nametag.I informed them I was indeed
looking for software and web developers, and before the night was over I had a
dozen business cards and a few resumes to sort through.

Over 250 people attended this kickoff party, created by Jeremy Gocke and
Kelly Perdew, including over 20 recruiters and many local companies
looking for talented people.A big draw
for the night was the opportunity for entrepreneurs to pitch their ideas to VC
types -- Angels, Business Accelerators and Seed Funding entities.
Sixteen lucky entrepreneurs signed up on the Lounge’s website before the event
and won the chance to deliver a five-minute "elevator pitch” to a VC. This
format proved very exciting for both entrepreneurs and investors.The entrepreneurs got significant face time
with investors, constructive feedback, and a chance to polish their pitch.The investors had a very structured
environment in which to listen to pitches, provide constructive feedback and
move on to the next idea. I’m sure this one-to-one face time will prove a big
draw at the upcoming events if it’s continually offered.

I was briefly able to meet one of the event’s sponsors, CEO Dan Guerrero
of eCRUITING (www.ecruitinginc.com), and also recruiters at the
event tables like Racquel Neidhold of Technical Connections (www.tci-la.com).
Other sponsors included the Sales Athlete and MobileContact Media
(www.mobilecontact.net).

Two speakers took the mike during the evening: Dave Lavinsky, President
and Founder of GrowThink (www.growthink.com and Kathy Aaronson,
CEO of the Sales Athlete (www.salesathlete.com).I got to the party late, so Mr. Lavinsky was
in the middle of speaking when I arrived. It was difficult to hear him because
so many in the crowd were bustling about and talking -- which crowds will do at
such an event, but the limited space didn't readily provide a separate area for
a speaker to talk. At any rate, Mr. Lavinsky's well-delivered speech delved
into what's hot and what's not in the current funding market and included some
advice on how to position yourself and your company to raise money. When he was
finished, Jeremy had to take the podium and chastise the crowd about keeping
the noise down so eager listeners could hear the speaker; he was stern, but he
had a point and some of the clamor died down before the next speaker took the
stage.

I used the break time between speakers to seek out Jeremy and ask him if he was
pleased with how his first event was going. He was very enthusiastic about the
showing, and eagerly anticipating the upcoming kickoff Lounge parties in many
new cities, including Atlanta, Dallas, and San Francisco, for starters. He said
they’ve gotten a lot of requests from other cities as well, so they expect to
add them to the roster soon. I asked Jeremy why the event wasn’t called a “Pink
Slip Party” like so many cities are having these days, and he answered that
everybody else seemed to be having those, and Layoff Lounge events were really
targeted at finding people jobs (not just mingling with other
job-seekers) and secondly, for laid-off folks to party the night away after the
networking was over.

I had time to do a brief introduction with Kelly and found out he knows
Courtney well -- doesn’t everybody? He was preoccupied with overseeing the
entrepreneur meetings with the VCs, so I got his card and emailed with him later
about the event.

Soon it was time for the next speaker. Ms. Aaronson’s speech highlighted what
to do/not do when selling yourself for your next gig. I’m sure all of it was
good, but I had to leave early to catch a redeye flight so I ducked out –
unfortunately I also missed the raffle drawing, which included a complete golf
outing and Lakers tickets! Sigh.

The next Layoff Lounge event will be held in Santa Monica in March.I emailed Kelly about where the next LA
venues would be, and he replied that they would keep changing venues until they
found the perfect spot. He added that in addition to the aforementioned cities,
they plan on launching the parties in New York, Chicago, and Austin in April,
and they are working on getting things set up for San Diego, Washington, DC,
and Miami. If the other venues are as good as LA’s first event was, look for a
Layoff Lounge party in your city soon!

The first event of the Layoff Lounge took place in downtown LA's SoHo Nightclub on February 22nd. This newly-reopened joint used to be known as Glam Slam, Prince's favorite space to jam. The polished wood walls and clean lines gave the place a refined appeal, and the art-deco wavy metal "walls" performed a function while offering a funky modern look to the space. There was a large bar in the back area of the club, so I wandered over to grab an Evian before I headed over to the Sponsor tables. Before I could pay the bartender, I was inquired about what sort of resources I was looking for by two well-dressed gentleman. They knew to ask me because the red button on my nametag told them I was an employer, as opposed to a job-seeker or a VC -- a nice, easy flagging system for people to know more about a person with a simple glance at a nametag. I informed them I was indeed looking for software and web developers, and before the night was over I had a dozen business cards and a few resumes to sort through.

Over 250 people attended this kickoff party, created by Jeremy Gocke and Kelly Perdew, including over 20 recruiters and many local companies looking for talented people. A big draw for the night was the opportunity for entrepreneurs to pitch their ideas to VC types -- Angels, Business Accelerators and Seed Funding entities. Sixteen lucky entrepreneurs signed up on the Lounge's website before the event and won the chance to deliver a five-minute "elevator pitch" to a VC. This format proved very exciting for both entrepreneurs and investors. The entrepreneurs got significant face time with investors, constructive feedback, and a chance to polish their pitch. The investors had a very structured environment in which to listen to pitches, provide constructive feedback and move on to the next idea. I'm sure this one-to-one face time will prove a big draw at the upcoming events if it's continually offered.

I was briefly able to meet one of the event's sponsors, CEO Dan Guerrero of eCRUITING (www.ecruitinginc.com), and also recruiters at the event tables like Racquel Neidhold of Technical Connections (www.tci-la.com). Other sponsors included the Sales Athlete and MobileContact Media (www.mobilecontact.net).

Two speakers took the mike during the evening: Dave Lavinsky, President and Founder of GrowThink%

Wednesday, February 21, 2001

Ah yes! These are the parties I remember from the early days of the Internet. Walking into a nightclub with low lighting, lights flashing, a DJ spinning blasting music, smoke in the air and football teams of young men primed for "discussion." Well, thank goodness I've grown up and can now just waltz in, take a quick look around and leave before too much smoke gets in my hair or too many drinks gets spilled on me. Upoc and Unstrung came together for a wild night, produced by iLounge, to draw out throngs of young wireless community users and Wireless show attendees on Wednesday, February 21st at the club Joy. CEO, President and Co-founder Gordon Gould was on his way out as I arrived, but I did get to spend some quality time with the ever-sharp and witty Vice President of Operations and Co-founder Alex LeVine. ADIAGlobal.com's Managing Partner Shuja Keen and Matthew Keddy introduced me to Managing Partner Srikant Sarda. The trio was on the scene! As we chatted, Mr. Charming Alex LeVine introduced me to equally charming Upoc Chief Software Architect and Co-founder Harris Wulfson. So much charm and so little time! What's a girl to do?!

The space was white, but the noise wasn't. The Whitespace studio on 37th street contained all the elements of a wild party, but things remained calm. Mirror Image and their partner Exodus jointly hosted a hospitality event on Wednesday, February 21st , during the Content Delivery Networks Conference at Javits Center. Mirror Image's Hope Cunningham greeted me and Yopa.com's Manel Sweetmore, who was in town from LA. We meandered about and chatted with Storageway's Paul O'Dell and Donald Moran. Storageway is a platinum partner of Exodus. Rick Tacelli of Clearway was in good spirits, considering his company, Clearway, was acquired by Mirror Image, and he "intends to make [a lot] of money." Nearby we met SpeedEra's Jeffrey Brathwaite and Brendan Sheehan, who told me about their many locations-Atlanta, Charlotte, DC, Orlando, Santa Clara and now New York! Entertaining a small following of guests, Exodus' VP of Research Niel Robertson told us about his history within the industry and Exodus. Having started with NetGenesis, he left only to form his own company and compete with firms like Keynote. In 1998, as CTO of Service Metrix, which measures the performance and speed of sites, he became VP of Research when Exodus bought the company in 1999. Part of Niel's success could be attributed to his motto: "in performance, the devil is in the details." This multitalented gent also has a trendy restaurant called Triana in Boulder, and another in Boston called Limbo. Whew! We've got two new places to check out - and we know the owner!

On February 21 it was the Forum for Women Entrepreneurs, this time held in Boulder at the Spice of Life Event Center. Everyone was already sitting at tables when I got there, so I plopped my stuff down next to some familiar faces: Lauri Harrison, president, and Donna Crafton, VP, of LH3. I didn't get much networking in, but among the women I spotted were Kathy Simon, director of the University of Colorado's Deming Center for Entrepreneurship, Donna Auguste, president/CEO of Freshwater Software, Catharine Merigold, general partner with Vista Ventures, and Karyn German, VP of product development at WideForce Systems. We had a light dinner of soup, salad, and dessert, and then listened to Barbara Mowry, former CEO of Requisite Technology. Among her comments:

*Cash is king. Get money when you don't need it. Going public is not a business plan.

*Check out your VCs. Do they have industry knowledge? Will they be there for you? If you pull together money from several different VCs, keep in mind that they may have different agendas and may not be able to work together on your board.

*VCs never pay attention to the numbers. They don't believe them. They love transaction models (i.e., where businesses can collect on every transaction). If possible, get customers to pay up-front (which becomes much easier if you have high caliber VCs backing you).

* When pitching to corporate partners, tell them what you can do for them, not what they can do for you. Use a live demo rather than a PowerPoint presentation.

*Keep your employees, but on the other hand, every year get rid of the bottom 10%, the non-performers. If you don't, morale will suffer.

On February 23 I went to the first annual Telecom Professional of the Year award ceremony, organized by the Denver Telecom Professionals. The event was held at the Brown Palace, one of Denver's most famous landmarks. (For Titanic fans, the hotel is not named after the unsinkable Molly Brown, although she frequently stayed there.) When we arrived, we were greeted by a jazz combo and a generous bar. I spotted Sheila O'Neill, VP of The Weber Group, handling some PR duties for the event. Deborah Kenly, director of PR and client relations for the Meritage Private Equity Fund, came over to say hi and mentioned that she had just gotten married. I also ran into Benjamin Gochman, COO of LATGO (Latin America Trade and Technology Group).

During dinner I was seated next to Kelly Brandner, VP, and Eric Beteille, manager, of PR firm Citigate Cunningham, and Kristine Swain, VP of The Citibank Private Bank. We heard brief speeches from quite a few people and I noted that Denver was called THE telecom capital of the world by those who live here, but ONE of the major telecom capitals by those from other states. I kept wondering what other telecom capitals they had in mind. Between Denver's long history as a cable television center and current home to Qwest, Level 3, and ATT Broadband, is there any other place?

Gary Gaessler, DTP cofounder and former president, said community interest in the event was high. The 250 tickets sold out immediately and sponsorship interest was more than could be accommodated. Then he introduced the award winner, Art Zeile, CEO and cofounder of Inflow, an advanced colocation and managed services business. Inflow has raised more than $225 million in venture capital. His words of wisdom: "The first people you hire are the most important."

On February 24, I attended a TiE-Rockies brunch at Denver's Adam's Mark Hotel. Tie-Rockies has no equal in lining up outstanding speakers (which should indicate just how important a resource this organization is to Colorado). The past three speakers have been Vinod Khosla (cofounder of Sun, general partner at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers), Jim Crowe (CEO of Level 3), and Jagdeep Singh (cofounder/CEO of OnFiber, cofounder/CEO of Lightera Networks). This time it was none other than Sun cofounder/CEO Scott McNealy, who said he was at the event to hire, to sell hardware, and to encourage people to write software for Sun.

Approximately 200 people turned out, including Gary Gaessler of DTP, Catharine Merigold of Vista Ventures. Dilpreet Jammu, director of business development for Nortel, Andre Pettigrew, VP of marketing for FastIdeas, and Rita Coltrane, VP of consulting at Xpedior, Wayne Citrin, director of software engineering at Latis, and Deborah Arhelger, managing partner of DuoVoce Group. Vipanj Patel, managing partner/cofounder of iSherpa, introduced me to Manavendra Misra, director of business intelligence, and Shawn Davison, VP of technology, for K.Bkids.com.

Scott (who was dressed in blue jeans and chose to stand on the floor rather than at the podium) started his speech by saying the economy "ain't looking good" and that no one knows what it is going to do. There are some serious, fundamental problems about to go bad: high energy costs and no energy strategy, high interest rates, high taxes, and bloated government. We are starting to get layoffs. This means money will go out to them in the form of entitlements rather than coming back from them in the form of taxes. Aggressive action needs to be taken to prevent massive layoffs. Among his other points:

*The Internet bubble popped and it should have. It was almost like stealing: HowcanIlosemoney.com. Now productivity enhancement is the place to be. For example, someday a car will monitor its fuel level and then run an auction among local gas stations to obtain the lowest available price.

*One of Sun's goals is to have every appliance connected to every other appliance and have them run on a Sun ONE stack. Another is to make web tone more reliable than dial tone. This can be accomplished by having the control network separate from the data network.

*People will stop buying computers and will store their data with professionals. Therefore, Sun is targeting data centers like Level 3 and AOL. The big losers will be commercial real estate offices because people will be able to move from location to location and still have access to their data (i.e, more people can use fewer offices). Sun will soon average 1 1/2 people per office and eventually 10 people per office.

*Sun was started by Scott, Vinod Khosla, and Andy Bechtolsheim. They were all 27. "We didn't know any better. Vinod and I were business school buddies. We were always the last two guys left at the parties. He was the entrepreneur of the group and spending his last six months of school working for a start-up; I spent my last six months of school on the golf course."

*Sun's strength is its board of directors. The hardest thing to staff is your board.

*Integrity is very important. You can never break character because everyone will find out. You have to be a role model. That's why they pay you the big bucks. "I have to stomp all over that little guy [inside me] that never grew up." Darwin is at work. You can be a roman candle for awhile, but eventually you'll be found out.

*As an entrepreneur, be prepared for more hours than you ever expected. It's a young person's game. Do it before you have a family or be prepared for major stress. "I didn't get married until I was 39 and didn't have kids until I was in my forties." There are big trade-offs.

*If you want to start a company, do it. There is no risk except for your time. If you fail, it's a feature on your resume, not a blemish. The risk comes later, when 43,000 people are counting on you for a pay check. Once your company becomes big, that's when you think "How many ways can I screw up now?"

*When he started, he was literally assembling hardware. Then he moved into managing. Now, "I've been relegated to being an icon. Most of my decisions now are about style and culture."

At the conclusion of the talk, Scott had to go and the rest of us enjoyed the buffet, which in typical TiE-Rockies fashion was quite impressive. (Among the offerings were several salads, several types of burritos, and a choice of desserts including Key Lime pie.)

Tuesday, February 20, 2001

The very swank new residential tower Ocean is home to one of the city's forward-moving office-space support centers-Kickstart. After a successful launch in Midtown, this group formed their Kickstart Wall Street and hosted a pre-opening Bits, Bytes and Bar with the Downtown Alliance on Tuesday, February 20th. After checking in, I chatted for a bit with David Murrow, who told me that he's now working with Schwartz PR Interactive. He introduced me to artist Debra Lee Johansen. The City of Yokohama's Assistant Director Justin Zimmerman, along with his posse, was hanging out in one of the back rooms, where I also met up with RadGuard's Nora Mongardi and Ashok Pai, who explained his new socially conscious LBO media company (more on this in the coming weeks). Kickstart's EVP Carmel Kashani and EVP of Bizdev Jonathan Mensch told me that they've got 20,000 square feet of space available for 12 companies. Jodie Kahn, formerly of 24/7 Media, came over to say "hello" and to tell me that she's now working at Arbitron on their webcasting ratings. NetShoot's Tim Walker and Jennifer Grant were among the guests who came out on this chilly night to network!

On February 6 I hit First Tuesday's, again held at Brooklyn's across from the Pepsi Center. It's a great location for an event: a two-story building that is the perfect size to hold the more than 650 who showed up. (According to the after-event tally, it was 55% entrepreneurs, 18% investors, 27% service providers and 7% "unknown"). The atmosphere can best be described as "Recession? What recession?" A high energy group and gauging by the number of men arriving in suits and top coats, an affluent one.

The food was quite good (a buffet which included two kinds of pasta and fresh berries) and the bar fully equipped (any event where my free drink ticket gets me a whiskey sour automatically falls into my plus column). Everything -- the people, the setting, the free food/libations -- added up to a great party. I talked to Gary Gaessler, past president/co-founder, and Lucy Vento, president, of the Denver Telecom Professionals, about their upcoming Telecom Professional of the Year awards ceremony. I said hello to Dilpreet Jammu, Nortel's director of business development, who is relatively new to the area and is busy checking things out. Jeff Jensen, CEO/president of Dealer Parts Online, and I were talking about the need to bring together old and new economies. Jim Kloberdanz, VP/sales and marketing at Absolute Performance, told me what he's been up to lately. I also chatted with Boulder-area friends John Hill, CTO of Capture Logic, and Patty Rivera, founder/CEO of Kiditcard.

Cate Lawrence, CEO/president of Warrior Solutions, Erich Stein, president of Erich Stein Communications, and I sat down to catch the presentation of the evening, "3G and The Wireless World - Hype vs. Reality," given by Vipanj Patel and Gary Rohr, co-founders of iSherpa Capital. Rather than recount everything they covered, I'll point you to the pdf version.

At the end of the evening I found myself with the SpireMedia crowd CEO Mike Gellman introduced me to Doug Meer, VP/sales and marketing. Then Donna Crafton, PR VP at LH3, and I talked clothes with recent Spire-hire Brett Madden (who sported a striking orange shearling bag). The big question, "Can we wear leather to the next First Tuesday?" And the big news is that Spire is expanding its offline business to become a full-service creative solutions agency.

On February 8 I attended the Colorado Internet Kieretsu meeting. It was at Trilogy in Boulder. Since the weather was nasty, it was mostly a Boulder crowd, although Mike Gellman did make it up from Denver. Dan Feld, head of SOFTBANK Venture Capital's Colorado incubator, HOTBANK, was there to begin the process of new board member elections. Terri Douglas, Guy Murrel, and Sara Yelton from Catapult PR were also there (CIK is a client). Mark Weakley was representing event sponsor Holme Roberts & Owen. Among others making the rounds were Larry Nelson and Pat Nelson, hosts of The World Wide Web radio show, and Joyce Colson, of Colson Quinn.

I also met Debra Miller, CEO/founder of Summit Voice Solutions, Scott Weiss, president of , and Charles Stirk, president of Bosonics. One reason CIK is such a popular networking group is the number of start-ups which are represented.

On Friday I saw Mark Weakley again because he and Susan Thevenet invited me to the annual HRO Winter Park ski trip. Since it is one of the largest law firms in the Rocky Mountain region, there are too many lawyers for all of them to fit on the train. Therefore different divisions take turns hosting the event. This year the emerging business group got the opportunity. Both Susan and Mark serve as special counsels in the Boulder office and work closely with a number of high tech clients.

Mark, Susan, James Maynard, product manager for Biostar, and I met at Mark's house at 5:45 AM to carpool down to Denver's Union Station where we caught the ski train which makes a round-trip to Winter Park every Saturday and Sunday during the season. We traveled in style, riding in three private luxury cars, equipped with a kitchen, a bar, sleeping compartments, and a two-story glass-domed observatory. On the way up we were served breakfast and on the way back, cocktails and a buffet (I loaded up on the salmon and sushi). It was about two hours each way so there was plenty of time to talk. Among those I met were Nancy Gegenheimer, managing partner of the Boulder office, Greg Holloway, a partner in the Colorado Springs office, and Liza Gonzalez, an associate in the Denver office. I asked Charlie Bruce, a partner in the Boulder office, about the current economic climate and he reassured me that "deals are getting done." Everyone was commiserating with him because as soon as he returned from the ski trip, he was then going to drive to Aspen the same night. Life is tough in Colorado.

The weather had been had been bad the day before, but it was sunny and clear for our outing. The view from the dome was breathtaking - deep blue skies above and white snow on the ground. Once we got to Winter Park, people broke up into groups of downhill skiers, cross-county skiers, and snowshoers. Among those enjoying the outing were Jon Hollman, who is with US Bank's Colorado Springs office, Catherine Merigold, general partner with Vista Ventures, Andy Murray, CFO of SignalSoft, and Bernadette Hill and John Keffer, from Expanet's Salt Lake City office. (Just the day before, it was announced that the company, with revenue of $1.4 billion, is moving its headquarters to the Denver area.) It was a great trip and we got even got our own HRO fleece mittens and headband to take home.

Speaking of ski trips, Kristin Johnston, director of corporate communications and media communications for GetGo, filled me in on the DUET trip that I missed the week before. The group of business leaders, performing artists, and international dignitaries traveled by bus to Copper Mountain and were served breakfast burritos, bloody Mary's, and mimosas. "Elevator stories consisted of participants introducing themselves and giving short summations of their roles at DUET. The stories ranged from acquisition opportunities to new business strategies, with a little of everything else in between. The mood was fun and lighthearted until a green SUV lost control on I-70 and crashed into the bus, sending it swerving sideways. As the bus started to tilt, the driver skillfully kept it upright. The SUV bounced off the bus and hit it two more times before coming to a stop." Once it was determined that the SUV occupants were okay, and the state patrol contacted, the bus continued on its way to Copper Mountain, all occupants safe and sound. As Kristen put it, "DUET 2001 Ski Patrollers just can't be stopped."

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Il fait beau! Et chaque soir a l'energie et l'anticipation pour des affairs le societie et des affairs l'amour. The days were mild and the nights at Cannes were alive with parties and activity during its famed MILIA event during February 10th through 14th.

Thursday, February 15, 2001

No time for jet lag! Thursday night kept me busy with a full itinerary of events that started with Fashion Week's Richard Tyler Couture show. Lumina Americas hosted an employment party at their offices on Broadway, and KPE celebrated their fifth year anniversary at their space further up on the same avenue. The NYC branch of the Environmental Entrepreneurs, an NRDC (National Resources Defense Council) initiative had a networking party in the lovely home of Jeanne and John Sullivan. Notable successful entrepreneurs with a passion for our environment, including Bob Epstein (founder of Sybase) and Techspace's Chairman Bruce Bockmann, were enjoying the camaraderie of other interested guests. Starvest's Jeanne Sullivan and AT&T's John Sullivan (who's partially heading up the NY branch) made sure all the guests got to know each other. They were the perfect hosts. Later that night, I stopped over to Centrofly, where KPE held their after-party for staff and friends. Martinis flowed and hors d'ouevres kept a'coming; and with pulsating music, the young hipsters of the night were in a sensory sensation. Even the blue-painted face and branded KPE man didn't seem out of place!

Well, one of the first major events of
the year came and went in a flurry of belly dancers, magicians, and exotic
fish. February 9th was the night for Tech Mecca, put on by San
Diego’s newest glossy mag on “everything tech”, the T Sector (http://www.thetsector.com/). Greg
Block, marketing director for the T Sector, certainly had his work cut out
for him when he took over the planning for this wild and wacky event for the
CEOs and other high level executives of San Diego geekdom. The venue was the
very cool Stephen Birch Aquarium at Scripps Institute of Oceanography in La
Jolla. A fitting audience for the night’s festivities, the fish luckily seemed
unperturbed by the screeching violin/techno performance art piece that was part
of a full multimedia presentation. I myself preferred the simple pleasure of
watching junior lawyers from a local law firm get dunked in the frigid dunking
booth. And then there was the putting green set up by Bowne http://www.bowne.com/, where you could win
either meat or cheese based on your prowess.

If golfing for groceries was not your idea of a good
time, the law firm of Luce Forward Hamilton and Scripps http://www.luce.com had set up Sony
Playstations, giving those used to battling in the boardroom the opportunity to
show off their competitive spirit.

I caught up with Leane Marchese, director of
membership and marketing services for Biocom http://www.biocom.org/,
who says that the biotech industry in San Diego could learn from this event…and
she hopes to see more biotech firms getting involved in the next Tech Mecca. In
fact, Biocom president and CEO Joseph Panetta called the Tech Mecca “the
hippest event in San Diego”, which to me indicates his seal of approval as
well. He may be right…but my votes are still out until the Big eSchmooze takes
place on March 1st!

In the current dotcom-and-go craziness to hit San
Diego, it was inevitable that I would meet up with at least a few pink slip
refugees as well as the scrappy survivors. One of those still hanging on is
Planesia http://www.planesia.com/, which
develops business software that links commerce portals, creating a “universal
shopping cart.” Lisa Culver, director of business development, says that
although they have solid backers and developers, they are urgently looking to
access new funding. I hope they find it, because San Diego needs all the
success stories it can get!

Speaking of success stories, when I finally got a
chance to chat with Katherine Harrington, publisher of the T Sector, we
both agreed that the Tech Mecca was a success. Unofficial count puts
attendance at around 900, which was perfect for such a creative venue. And as
Katherine says, the real success of the evening was “due to the support of the
sponsors and the involvement of the community.” And she had so much fun (clad
in a very hip cyber-camisole made of metal, by the way) that she is absolutely
ready to “do it again next year!” I’ll be there!

Tuesday the 13th found me back at
Michael’s Bar at the La Jolla Hyatt Aventine for another round of the
netHappyHour http://www.nethappyhour.com/.
Despite coming in late after a marketing seminar put on by Techniquelle http://www.techniquelle.com/, there was
still a good crowd, though the vibe had mellowed and the initial “Pick me, pick
me” song and dance by the entrepreneurs for the VCs and angels had subsided.
Those who were doing business were off in corners working figures, and those
who failed to make a business connection were connecting in other ways, if you
know what I mean. In fact, according to Bryan Depew, director of
marketing and sales for Impact Engine http://www.impactengine.com/,
the netHappyHour is “one of the best singles scenes in San Diego.” Who would
have thought?

Legitimately looking for business was Anita
Cohen-Williams of CohWill Consulting, a search engine optimization firm. If
you are interested in learning how empty your life is without meta-tags, you
can contact Anita at sdpresidio@earthlink.net
. Also on the beat for new opportunities was Thomas Noble, a pink slip
refugee now assisting Ants.com with marketing their new software product Scout.
He says that they are “still working out the bugs”…no pun intended.

And finally, kudos to Nutshell Digital http://www.nutshelldigital.net/ for
winning a Featured Site Award on Flashkit.com for the month of February! Mark
Holmes (CEO), who was mentioned in the SD Cyber Scene a few weeks back, told me
that to be eligible for the award, a website must be Flash, or have innovative
use of Flash, and must be original, with good use of design or sound or
interactivity. When he found out they had won the award, Mark says, “We had
over 3000 unique visitors to our site on the first morning the award was
announced.” Well done Nutshell Digital http://www.nutshelldigital.net/!

Wednesday, February 14, 2001

Waking up in Cannes, flying eight hours, landing in New York and going from the airport to a trendy nightclub for our Valentine's Soiree was on my schedule for Wednesday, February 14th. It was a whirlwind, but someone has to do it, oui? Intimate and romantic our Cocktails with Courtney soiree was in the sexy lounge Serena. We had couples come for a special martini, and a few found new dates! A few gents were decked in festive red jackets and ties, and some of the ladies revealed sexy legs in fashionable fishnet stockings. At the end of the appointed hour, each man received a pair of Cocktails with Courtney boxers and the women got cute baby-tees. Something festive and fun for later perhaps? You can see all the action online!

MILIA - the interactive content conference with a focus on broadband Internet, interactive TV, wireless and interactive entertainment - is a festival itself in the City of Festivals, Cannes. In past years, Silicon Alley's jet set flew out to rub shoulders with the international jet set, and this year was no exception. There were rows and rows of exhibit booths from companies around the world displaying their technology, CDs and services. There was a focus on educational CDs and interactive sites. Wireless companies held press conferences on new developments and made a huge impact on the major companies present. W-HA focused on new online payment solutions, and Vivendi-Universal officially launched their new portal, Education.com. Gamegate is extending their reach into wireless, while TV and Electronic Arts' president and COO spoke on moving gaming online and across platforms. Infogrames, which also co-hosted one of the major cocktail parties of the show, hosted a press conference on "The Game Nation." The exhibition hall also had a Developers and Gaming area, where lots of people spent time playing and sharing tips.

For the second year running, Forrester coordinated the Think Tank Summit during the conference. This summit focused on an in-depth appraisal of the industry, with keynotes and panels on technology innovation and new business models. Forrester Research, USA's Vice President Mary Modahl spoke about serving your customers, and Bertelsmann ecommerce Group, Germany's, President and CEO Andreas Schmidt addressed the social impact of technology change. Panels on interactive content strategies and technology trends were the focus of discussion on Saturday, February 10th and in the afternoon the Start-Up competition featured 10 European startups vying for investment, service and technology partners. Among the lucky pitchers were France's La Cantoche Production CEO Benoit Morel, the Netherlands' Jaytown CEO Erik Spin and Germany's Net-Games AG CEO Jurgen Stehle.

No conference would be complete without a series of cocktail parties to keep all the busy networkers drunk and happy. Accenture hosted the Think.Tank Summit cocktail on Saturday at the Palais des Festivals. Vivendi Universal and Flipside took over the entire ground floor and outside grounds of l'hotel Majestic on Sunday, and Microsoft DirectX and Infogrames took over l'hotel Martinez on Tuesday. New York-based United Digital Artists co-produced their annual Net Zapping Festival, where 15 designers and developers have three minutes to show their wares and dazzle the audience. Monday iFinger and Toon8 hosted soirees at their booths, and each night Intel and WEM poured champagne for guests who stopped by their stand. Monday was also the night of the Eccsell (European Computer & Console Software Edutainment and Leisure Leaders) Awards, organized by Sell in partnership with GfK, Chart-Track and Game One. Awards were presented for best titles sold during the year 2000 and for the best publishers in terms of turnover for 2000. The competition categories were: video games, reference/leisure and edutainment. With all these activities, the thousands of attendees had more than their share of options for leisure and work. The 2001 MILIA conference was by far a smashing success, with impressive excitement during the days and nights, and one of the most beautiful locations in the world!

…A curious
episode, in some respects; the only one, of its peculiar kind, that has
occurred in the land; and the only one, indeed, that is
likely to occur in it…These
were “flush times” indeed!I thought
they were going to last always, but somehow I never was much of a prophet.

--Mark
Twain, “Roughing It” (1872)

William Daly, the campaign
manager for Al Gore, was on TV a lot during the big Florida recount show down.But I saw him about eight months ago, while
he was still serving as the Secretary of Commerce.He and New York Congressman Charlie
Rangelwere up at 125th
Street and Lenox Avenue in Harlem to celebrate the imminent arrival of
UBO.net.UBO (or Urban Box Office) was
going to be moving its offices from Chelsea to this “empowerment zone” in what
was hoped to be the first step toward a technological renaissance in a section
of town that up until then had been left out of the Internet boom.In return for serious tax breaks, UBO.net
would, among other things, offer neighborhood kids access to learning and
equipment through ongoing community outreach programs.

The mood on that summer
afternoon was like a religious revival.Hundreds of people, along with television cameras from all the local
stations, crowded together and cheered speaker after speaker who sang the
praises of this new company and of the new spirit of optimism swelling up in
Harlem.When it was over, a band
played, hands were shaken, smiles exchanged, and good luck wishes were given to
the young leaders of UBO.Then the
dignitaries got in their limos, the commoners on their subways, and the folks
from this Internet start-up were left basking in the afterglow of this huge
dotcom Christening.

Before the year was out,
Urban Box Office was out of business.No
one cared about hip hop on the Web.Not
enough people anyway to justify more cash infusions by increasingly cautious
investors.The poor guys never even moved
their offices out of Chelsea; and the children of Harlem are no better off
today than they were when all the pomp and promises were dumped on them last
summer.

UBO is just one of many
dotcom companies who have been going down in bunches lately.Companies are shutting their doors
daily.To call these places companies
might be a misnomer.They were more like
rough ideas with lots of money behind them.

At the beginning oflast year, I interviewed for job at
Pseudo.com.They were hoping to be the
first television network on the web.That
sounded neat.And besides, I was not
immune to the idea of great riches.For
a few days, like Mark Twain during the Nevada silver rush of the 1860s, “I succumbed
and grew as frenzied as the craziest.”But,
it turned out, that more than any other company I know of, Pseudo.com
represented all that was silly and arrogant about the first generation of Web
startups.I showed up in a suit for the
interview and was greeted by a receptionist with a nose ring and a very
serious-faced guy Rollerblading around the lobby.Later I learned he was one of the “creative”
guys on the team who liked to relax and think by turning the office into a
skating rink.But if anyone cared, no
one said a word.Hey, this is a
party.“We’re turning business on its
head.”It’s a revolution and the suits
are gonna see that this generation is really different.Of course, not many people were tuning in to
Pseudo.com.But that didn’t matter.“We’re building our brand right now.” When I
politely questioned some of the assumptions they had made in their business
plan, a senior “executive” told me, “Hey…some people just get it and others just
don’t get it.We want people who get
it.”

He got it all right.A pink slip, that is.Last September, Pseudo.com shut its doors for
good.I wonder if that “creative” guy on
Rollerblades is allowed to glide around the floor at his new job at TGI
Fridays?

Quite
by accident, I moved up here just before the Internet frenzy and was lucky
enough to witness its dramatic birth.There was a time when one could eat for free every night, just by going
to launch party after launch party.A
vice president at an Internet start-up was a person to be admired, even
envied.Now, when someone tells me they
work for a start-up, I think, “Oh…that’s too bad.”

And
it really is too bad that people are getting laid off.It’s always sad when one is thrust into
financial uncertainty.It’s not just greedy,
creepy arrogant SOBs who are being shown the door, but regular, good people,
too.People who believed in what the
company was trying to do.People who
believed in their constantly reassuring leaders.People who were willing to work long hours on
the promise that someday they’d be rewarded.

Now these people are gone—at
least as I knew most of them, which was in their email incarnations.Every week, for the past three or four
months, a half a dozen emails come back to me as “undeliverable.”

These weren’t bad
people.The bad people were the
ill-prepared, comically-confident reckless executives who played these suckers,
then cashed in their stock before the company went bust.Right now they’re living in big houses in
Mountain View and Westchester that are bought and paid for, while the
entry-level and middle-management schmoes with worthless options and rents
coming due are posting their hopes on MonsterBoard.com.True, there’s no law against getting rich
like this.But it would be a noble
marketplace, indeed, if leaders shared the fate of those in their command.

This
speculative fever is not new in America.Take this description of the afore-mentioned Nevada silver rush of the
1860s as found in Mark Twain’s, Roughing
It:

…The thousand wildcat shafts burrowed deeper
and deeper into the earth, day by day, and all men were beside themselves with
hope and happiness.How they labored,
prophesied, exulted!Surely nothing like
it was ever seen before since the world began.Everyone of these wildcat mines—not mines, but holes in the ground over
imaginary mines—was incorporated and had handsomely engraved “stock” and the
stock was salable, too.It was bought
and sold with a feverish avidity in the boards every day.You could go up on the mountainside, scratch
up a “notice” with a grandiloquent name in it, start a shaft, get your stock
printed, and with nothing whatever to prove that your mine was worth a straw,
you could put your stock on the market and sell out for hundreds and even
thousands of dollars.To make money, and
make it fast, was as easy as it was to eat your
dinner.

Sure
enough, the silver market collapsed, and Twain left Nevada no richer, but a lot
wiser.(And with plenty of good stories
to tell.)

Like Mark Twain, the rumors
of the death of the Internet economy are highly exaggerated.Just as the greedy, arrogant, unskilled VPs
of startups-gone-by were annoying, so too are the reporters and commentators
who are preaching their I-told-you-so doomsday nonsense. We have swung away
from the overly-confident to the overly-cynical.The truth is somewhere in the middle.

The bad guys were the greedy,
unskilled CEOs.For the most part, they’re
all gone.Now the sound use of the Web
as a business tool can begin.

The “curious episode” is
over.It will all be much better from
here on out.

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